Original subtitles

♪♪

[Heartbeat echoing]

[Birdsong and indistinct shouts outdoors]

[Beeps] Hey, Julia.

You're probably fast asleep.

Let me know what time it is when you get this.

You might have noticed a different background.

I'm phoning from my kitchen, not the shed.

So I'm just reporting on last month's news.

I broke our streak.

Before I forget, thank you for sending me that Tiger Balm,

it really helped my muscle pain.

So, what's been going on with me?

There's something I need to tell you.

You know how hard it is to recruit P.A.s?

Well, I now employ five.

I don't think I've ever had this many at any one time.

To refresh your memory,

there's Yasmin, Clare, Alec,

Simone and... oh...

where's poor Ellie?

Ellie is still in your old position, full time.

She's been with me...

God, it will be four years.

I got good vibes about Ellie though,

like she could last the distance.

Ellie kept up your chore chart.

She made sure all the other P.A.s did as well.

She is a bit bossy, but she means well.

She gets my chronic pain

and she's so on it with my meds.

She showed me how to break down my projects

into manageable tasks.

Don't tell anyone,

but we even got drunk together one New Year's Eve.

She makes me feel more like...

more than a monthly payslip, like you did.

Not that I'm comparing, or anything.

You know I would have you back in a heartbeat

if you ever did decide to come back.

I hope teaching's still going well.

I live next door to a teacher now.

Keira.

She moved in with her husband, Patrick,

in the beginning of spring.

I was writing in my shed when Ellie popped in.

"Your neighbor wants a word."

I go outside and there she is,

this smiley, curly red-head,

with a nose ring and bright eyes.

"Keira."

She reached out her hand for a handshake, but of course,

I can't reach it, so she put my hand in hers.

She wanted to invite me and Ellie

to a housewarming barbecue.

Their house is inaccessible,

so Keira and Ellie took down two planks of wood

from the garden fence,

and I just managed to squeeze my wheelchair through.

I remember Ellie handed me a hot dog,

with a smidge of mustard, far too much ketchup.

I take a bite -- ugh.

Patrick -- Keira's husband -- says,

"That's a veggie dog,

better for the environment and your health.

Well, not your health specifically; everyone's."

Keira offers me a beer.

She opens it with her teeth. [Bottle cap pops]

I ask for a straw.

"Afraid not, we're trying to limit our single use plastics."

"Is it really the humble straw

that's polluting our oceans though?"

"Not just straws, Ellie.

So, what do you do for a living?"

She was talking to me.

So I told her that I was a children's author,

and she seemed delighted.

Turns out she's a teacher, primary.

She asked if I would be up for doing a reading

for the children in her nursery.

Ellie butts in,

"She don't really do readings."

Keira ignores this.

She tells me that she can't pay me because of budget cuts

and all that, but maybe there's a skill swap thing

we can come to.

Her piercing gaze pushes a "sure" out of me.

♪♪

You know how much time I spent in my shed?

I love it to bits, and I loved how it was made.

Ellie roped all the other P.A.s into making it for me

for my birthday.

They were too scared to say no.

How they kept that a secret I will never know.

It's my sanctuary.

So the day after, I go in there,

there's a pack of recyclable straws taped to the door.

Moments later, there's a knock. [Knocking]

I spin round and it's Keira.

"I hope you like my peace offering", she said,

looking very pleased with herself.

She came up with a way to pay me for the reading.

"I'll do up your garden."

I like my remarkable garden, but Keira insists.

She explains how she loves to tend to flowers

and watch them evolve.

She stresses that

I shouldn't overlook my garden's potential.

Then she gets down on her knees,

puts her arm on my arm rest,

"Sometimes, things just haven't had the chance to bloom."

Then she did that eye intense gaze thing again,

pushes an "okay" out of me.

I really need to stop looking into her eyes.

She gives me her number.

"Send me some dates you're free,

we'll grab a drink and discuss the reading."

As she leaves, Ellie comes in with my lunch.

"If you want your garden done up,

just say the word and I will."

I like my remarkable garden.

Besides, I'm in operation marathon mode

to get book six completed.

You remember my code names, right,

for daily tasks and moods,

that me and Ellie came up with?

My fave, Operation Sloth, PJ day.

Operation Bush Control, my not so fave.

Operation Rapunzel, hair care days.

And Operation Red Rum,

painful days.

Funnily enough, Ellie seemed quite pained that I told Keira

about our codes.

Didn't really understand when Keira's been so lovely

to the both of us.

One afternoon, when it was pissing it down,

Keira ran in with a bottle of wine.

"Toasty. I can see why you like it in here,"

she said as she filled my mug with wine.

[Wine glugging] She flicks through my books.

I show her the hidden marigold hidden in each one.

I tell her about mum.

"She loved marigolds.

The plan is to write 13 picture books,

one for each year we spent together,"

but Keira interrupts me with a kiss.

The thing is, I know she's married,

but it's one of those truly earth-shaking,

stars-exploding, twitching kind of kisses.

It rippled through me, and for a moment,

all my aches and pains were silent.

I guess I've just been so used to being ignored,

that it surprised me that she didn't.

I know that doesn't excuse what we did,

and I know it's wrong.

Honest to God, I tried to keep my distance,

focus on my work.

But then I heard grunts and shuffling from outside the shed,

and there's Keira, surrounded by sacks of soil and wooden boxes,

and pot plants.

"A deal's a deal, remember?"

Her face glistened with sweat

as she poured soil into the boxes.

Ellie was not best pleased.

She whispered to me, "Looks like you've made a new friend.

By force or by fire. I'll tell her where to go."

"Can you get us tea please, Ellie?"

Keira asked for a black coffee.

Ellie rolls her eyes as she goes inside.

Keira explained how she'd got me some relatively easy plants

to look after.

"Bit like me, I say." She chuckles.

And then we sneak a snog behind the shed.

We stop as soon as we hear Ellie

step out the kitchen. [Door opens]

She comes round the shed, a mug in each hand.

My heart's racing, my lips are throbbing.

Even my fingers tingled.

Keira nurses her mug,

while Ellie feeds me sips of tea.

"Sorry, we've run out of straws.

Are you wearing lipstick?"

Keira saves me: "I put some on her.

I thought the color suited her."

"Oh, let's have a look then.

I'll get you some next time I'm out."

"I'd best be off" -- Keira goes to leave.

"Mug," Ellie demands.

Keira extends her hand to give the mug to Ellie,

but drops it before Ellie can reach it.

[Clattering] The mug doesn't break.

Keira slips back through the gap in the fence.

I drive into my shed.

Ellie follows,

places the two incriminating mugs in front of me.

"What the...? Do you remember Patrick, her husband?"

Then we have the biggest argument that we have ever had.

"You'd better stop whatever it is that's going on.

You know she's using you, right?

If she really cared about you,

then she would break up with Patrick for you.

I'm only telling you this as a friend."

"We're friendly, Ellie, but you're not my friend.

I don't pay friends.

And she cares about me, she's not using me,

and I care about her."

Ellie looks me dead in the face.

"Well, you can't have both of us.

It's either me or her."

And then she walks off.

She can't do that, can she?

Over the next few weeks, Ellie was quieter than normal.

I tried to focus on my work,

but it's impossible because all I can think about is Keira.

It gets hard to be on my own around Keira,

and then when she finishes the garden,

she'd stopped replying to my texts.

Ellie keeps switching and changing her shifts,

so I never know when to expect her.

She fills the gap in the fence.

She doesn't water my plants.

She doesn't give me my pain meds anymore, unless I ask for them,

and I'm pretty sure she hid the keys to the garden,

because Simone found them under the sink.

Then the most terrifying night of my life happened.

Simone shook me awake in the middle of the night.

Almost couldn't get me into my chair,

she was panicking so much.

There was this glow, emitting from the kitchen window,

from the garden --

it was my shed,

completely engulfed in flames.

My notebooks, months of work and research.

First edition copies of my published books,

and, worst of all, I lost the Polaroids of me and mum.

[Flames roar, sirens blaring]

[Soft music playing]

Ellie visited me in hospital.

She gave me these.

She said, "I took digital copies when I made the shed --

I just reprinted them."

The fire brigade called the police,

who thought it was hate crime,

because sheds don't actually set themselves on fire.

And whoever did it also vandalized the garden

and threw a brick through the living room window.

[Glass shattering]

I know that disability hate crime has risen over the years,

but I've been here almost ten years,

and I've never had any trouble.

Why wouldn't they just throw the brick

through the garden window?

Why go all the way round to the front?

Unless...

Unless they knew it's where the P.A.s sleep.

They wanted to wake them up -- they wanted to ensure that

Simone woke up.

But there's no CCTV.

All the P.A.'s fingerprints are on the key safe

to let themselves in.

Ellie is the only one who knows how to change the code.

She changed it after you left.

Ellie slipped up, Ellie really slipped up.

Look: this has a bend in the same place.

These are my Polaroids.

It's not exactly proof, can't call the police.

How would that make me look?

Did she do what I think she did?

How can I fire her without any evidence?

Legally, I have no grounds to.

What if she sues me?

With my author's wage and benefits,

she knows how much I earn,

she knows the PIN codes to my accounts,

she knows I own this house that mom left me,

and she knows... [Door opens]

It's Ellie!

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